Why would OCLC be interested in 24/7 Reference

Following up on yesterday's post about OCLC combining its QuestionPoint service with MCLS's 24/7 Reference service, I thought I'd add a few thoughts about why I think the merger is taking place. OCLC seems to be getting a lot out of this deal. They pick up a cooperative chat reference service, something that their QuestionPoint service doesn't offer. The folks at 24/7 Reference (the staff and the librarians that participate) have done a lot of hard work over the past few years ironing out the wrinkles (and there are still some) in doing reference work cooperatively for a large collection of libraries (the academic library cooperative alone must serve nearly 100 libraries).

OCLC also picks up a chat service that has a lot of experience tinkering with a commercial software product originally designed for e-commerce, not chat reference: eGain. From what I hear, there are many libraries subscribing to the QuestionPoint service that are not happy with the basic or advanced chat software they provide. I've never been of fan of the software they provide either: the basic chat is really clunky and the advanced chat requires the user to download software before they can co-browse web pages with the librarian.

24/7 Reference gets some good things out of this deal, too. OCLC is likely (this is the optimist in me speaking now) to provide solid funding for this service. OCLC's QuestionPoint service also offers a great cooperative e-mail reference service, although I have doubts about its value for academic libraries.

What remains to be seen is what will happen with the competing chat reference software packages that 24/7 Reference and QuestionPoint offer. I think those of us in 24/7 Reference would be loath to exchange eGain software for any product that doesn't allow for co-browsing, that doesn't require user downloads, and that doesn't allow for transfers of chat sessions between librarians at different institutions. It may be that in the end OCLC will just decide to stick with the version of eGain that 24/7 Reference has been modified. Of course, if you take a look at eGain's finances, you have to wonder what that company's future looks like.